


More Than Just Sparks

by Ultra



Category: Hart of Dixie
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Canon Rewrite, Episode: s02e09 Sparks Fly, F/M, Fix-It, Getting Together, Kissing, Love, One Shot, Picnics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26617645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Wade asked her on a real date and Zoe brought a book to the picnic. Zoe doesn't want things to change but Wade refuses to be a placeholder for George. Sparks were always bound to fly and in more ways than one! [Rewritten middle and ending for 3x9 Sparks Fly].
Relationships: Zoe Hart/Wade Kinsella
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	More Than Just Sparks

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, I am becoming incapable of rewatching Hart of Dixie without wanting to rewrite something... mostly the Zade parts when an episode ends without them happy and together. Yes, I know, with Sparks Fly, I just had to click onto Blue Christmas and all would be fine, and yet, I wrote this instead. I don’t know what to tell you! lol

Zoe Hart was starting to feel like her head was going to explode from all the pressure inside. All she could think was, ‘Why do things have to change?’ After all, she had been perfectly happy with the way things were with her and Wade. Well, maybe not perfectly happy, but pretty darn close.

Then suddenly he’s asking her on a real date and somehow, they ended up on a blanket in the middle of town, trying to have a picnic that consisted almost entirely of crackers, and wine with no glasses, with Zoe reading ridiculous facts from a book she never should’ve brought along. It really was an unmitigated disaster.

“What is the problem with us talkin’?” Wade asked her in earnest. “It’s not like we never did it before.”

Zoe’s hand went to her head as she tried to stave off the headache that seemed imminent by now. “I don’t think the talking we’ve been doing the past few months exactly qualifies as elevated conversation, Wade.”

She was pretty sure that if you took out everything sexual, suggestive, and downright dirty, there couldn’t possibly be much left most of the time. From the look on his face, Wade couldn’t find a way to disagree with her.

“Well, maybe not, but I didn’t mean that,” he told her anyway. “I’m talkin’ about before. Like, for instance, that day we got caught in a storm and spent a whole lotta time alone in some barn, you remember that?”

“Of course, I remember.” Zoe rolled her eyes - as if she could forget! “But that was different. That was... before.”

“Before?” he echoed, shaking his head, looking just as mad as he had ten minutes ago, which only proved Zoe was not explaining herself well. “Before, what? You mean before we had sex?” he asked too loudly.

“Yes, okay,” she told him, raising her voice too. “Before! It was different then. Now, everything is... it’s changing. _Why_ is everything changing?” she asked desperately, all too aware of people nearby and her own red face and the fact she was really, really screwing this up royally but couldn’t seem to stop.

“Because things have to change, Zoe,” said Wade more calmly. “Like I said, it’s evolve or die,” he reminded her.

“Well, maybe I don’t want to pick either one of those, okay?” she said, a little mad at him for trying to make her do it too. “Maybe I just want to go for secret option c, carry on exactly the way we were before.”

She wasn’t sure why that was suddenly such a problem, or maybe she was but she would rather not admit it. The look on Wade’s face and the way he was suddenly on his feet suggested she wasn’t getting that much of a choice, after all.

“That’s fine for you, but maybe it’s just not for me,” he said, as hurt as he was angry by now, she thought. “Maybe I wanna be something a little more to you than a placeholder for George Tucker!” he said, pointing in the general direction of travel of the man he was talking about.

Zoe shook her head as she got to her feet too. “Wade, that is not what you are,” she promised him, only realising quite how true it was herself now the words were out there. “Why would you even think that?”

“’Cause it’s how you make me feel, Zoe,” he said, getting in her face some. “Not that I guess you ever thought about me even havin’ any feelings, for you or otherwise.”

He turned as if to go then, and maybe Zoe should’ve let him. Maybe she should’ve felt really bad for the hurt in his voice and the sadness in his eyes, and she actually did, but now she was mad too.

“Can you blame me?” she asked, grabbing at his arm and pulling, so that momentum brought him back around to face her, seeing that he looked properly stunned too. “You were so quick to talk about that conversation we had in the barn last May. So, let’s talk about it!” Zoe demanded, equally as mad as he was by now. “I remember you telling me that we needed to have sex, just once, and we’d be over each other. I remember me telling you that I could not see any possible way for us to have a relationship, and you responding that you weren’t looking for marriage or anything serious, you just wanted to deal with the sexual tension between us. Now, suddenly, you’re asking me on a real date and expecting me to know how to deal with that. Well, I don’t, Wade!” she told him, so loudly everybody in the country probably heard, but Zoe was past caring at this point. “It’s scary and weird, and no matter how much I want to make this work, I don’t know how!”

Before he had a chance to react at all, she turned around and all-but ran away. Maybe it wasn’t the most mature thing to do, Zoe was well aware, but frankly, she was out of fight, so flight seemed like the only option.

Wade called her name behind her, probably more than once, but she didn’t look back. It was like she told him, she just didn’t know how to deal anymore.

* * *

Wade Kinsella was not the kind of guy who asked women out on real dates and contemplated being real committed to any one person. At least, he hadn’t been that guy, not until Zoe came along. Now, suddenly, he found himself just bending over backwards to please her at every turn, and it didn’t even seem that hard to do, for a while anyway.

He figured whatever he got back from her would be enough, even if it wasn’t everything, but as time went on, Wade came to realise that with some people, with the right person, casual sex just wasn’t ever enough. He wanted Zoe for real and he had hoped maybe she would want him too, so he asked her on a real date, and they got as far as sitting down together to eat and talk, only to end up fighting, just like always.

Maybe he was a fool to think he could retrieve anything from the mess they made between them, but it was Zoe, so all Wade really knew was that he had to try. It was late, but he could see there was still a light on over at the carriagehouse. Having given the both of them a few hours to cool off from their fight, he figured he could probably risk going over there, at least to apologise, if nothing else.

Tapping on the door, he smiled slightly when she came to see who was there.

“I’m sorry,” he said, without so much as a greeting, a little surprised to realise she had spoken the exact same phrase at the exact same moment.

It made them both laugh at themselves, which was something to be glad about, Wade supposed. At least she wasn’t crying or yelling at him anymore.

“Hey, look,” he said then, leaning on the doorjamb, “about the whole real date thing...”

“Please, don’t explain,” she insisted, making a cutting motion with her hands. “Relationships are supposed to evolve, just like you said, and it was a natural progression from where we were. I just... I freaked out, I guess,” she admitted, shrugging her shoulders and looking so adorable, he could just die.

“Trust me, doc, you weren’t the only one,” he admitted with a sigh, “and you were right too, with what you said about that day in the barn. I did tell you that I wasn’t lookin’ for anything serious. I told you that a whole bunch of times, not least the morning after we finally did go to bed together that first time. See, the truth is... well, I got scared too,” he told her, even though he felt damn stupid doing it. “Ain’t exactly manly to admit, I know, but the feelings that I have for you, Zoe, that I’ve pretty much always had for you, they scare the ever-living crap outta me.”

He watched her eyes widen a little with surprise at his confession. Funny because Wade had thought she might at least have some idea of his real feelings for her, but then, he probably had hidden it pretty well, perhaps a little too well, after all.

“Huh,” she said after a little while. “Okay.”

“I just never really thought you wanted to know about it,” he continued, figuring somebody ought to be filling the awkward silence, and besides, he was on a roll now, best get it all out there before his nerve went again. “What with your feelings for George Tucker and you always bein’ so into this thing with us just being sex and everything, didn’t seem much like you were looking for anything else from me. Then at the picnic, when you got all mad, I realised right before you stormed off in your little huff, well, you did say something about wanting to make this work, right?”

He was waiting for her to deny it. Wade was absolutely braced and ready for her to just turn him away, tell him never to come back. He started breathing again when he realised that wasn’t going to happen this time.

“I did say that,” she admitted, nodding her head. “Look, Wade, when we started this... actually, before we ever started anything, it’s not like I didn’t like you at all,” she told him with a smile. “We always got along, there was always something between us, and I don’t really think it was ever only physical, on either side.”

“Okay.” Wade nodded, hardly daring to say or do any more than that, sure he was going to break some kind of weird magic spell if he did, because this couldn’t be real.

“And yes, I did have feelings for George,” Zoe continued, making him wince as she went on, “and sometimes, I think I still do, but that doesn’t change the fact that I also have very strong feelings for you too,” she confessed. “I mean, committing ourselves to each other doesn’t mean we’re never going to like anyone else, right? Other women will still be attractive to you and other guys will still be attractive to me, that’s just natural and-”

“Hold up a sec, doc,” he cut in then, eyes closed a moment as his head spun a little. “You say somethin’ in there about committing ourselves to each other?” he checked, as he opened his eyes again and leaned in a little closer.

“Oh,” said Zoe, almost nervously, clearly feeling self-conscious now he called her out. “Well, yeah, but I wasn’t exactly... I mean, when you said you wanted a real date and more than what we had before, I thought you meant, you know, like a boyfriend-girlfriend thing, but if that’s not-”

He probably should’ve let her finish, but honestly, Wade couldn’t bear too. After all they had been through up to now, after hearing her speak about her feelings for George in the past tense, and then these even stronger feelings she had for Wade himself, and now her talking about the two of them like they really could be a couple, he couldn’t just stand there listening to her go on anymore. He had to be kissing her, and from the way she kissed him back, he had no doubts in his mind he had made exactly the right move this time.

When they finally parted, he was actually inside her house, their arms were tight around each other and neither one of them was breathing too steady. Wade’s forehead was pressed against Zoe’s own as he spoke softly to her.

“You are all I want, Zoe Hart,” he promised her, with a grin he couldn’t shift for all the world. “So, yes, I meant a boyfriend-girlfriend thing, if that’s okay with you?”

“It is more than okay,” she told him happily, before turning a little too serious a second later, “but what I said before still stands, Wade. I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never really been a girlfriend before, not like this, not with someone that I... that I feel this much for.”

“Then you and me are in the same boat, doc,” he told her easily, knowing he should probably be as nervous as she looked, maybe even more so, but actually, he really wasn’t anymore, because this felt right. “I figure so long as we’re rowing in the same direction, we’ll get there somehow.”

Zoe pulled back a little, making a face. “Did you seriously just make a sailing analogy?”

“Shut up!” Wade told her, the both of them laughing as he lifted her up into his arms and kissed her again.

They tripped back towards the bed together, a tangle of limbs as they landed in an ungraceful heap, all whispered words and impatient kisses. Sure, they had to learn to talk to each other more and figure out how to be in a real relationship, but now they knew where they were headed, just for tonight, they were going to do what they did best together - let the sparks fly.


End file.
